Maceo Parker: A great among greats

How the sax man to some of pop and soul’s biggest stars earned his wings

Legendary saxophone player Maceo Parker will perform at the Vogue Theatre on June 25 as part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

Photograph by: INES KAISER

Maceo Parker

June 25, 8 p.m. | Vogue Theatre

Tickets and info: vanjazzfest.ca

Ask Maceo Parker to describe some of the acts he has had the privilege to blow his sax for and the answer is usually pretty much the same.

James Brown? “A genius. A true innovator.”

George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic? “Innovator.”

Prince? “Same thing.”

Ray Charles? “Almost like looking at someone from biblical times.”

But what about Maceo Parker? How does the 71-year-old sax man who shared the spotlight with so many of jazz, pop, soul and R&B’s greatest voices and also recorded over a dozen solo albums of his own see himself?

“Oh boy — oooooh boy,” Parker said in a recent phone interview, hesitating. “You know what? I love people. I really do. To a point where I almost can’t stand to watch the news because if I see something happen to somebody, it almost feels as if it’s happening to somebody in my family or somebody I know. I’m really sensitive — but I don’t have a cocoon I can just hide into.

“That’s why I enjoy going around the world doing what I do, and I try to say ‘love’ as much as possible. A lot of artists say ‘love,’ but I really try to have people learn to love themselves and love each other, you know what I mean?”

Spreading love may not be a revolutionary idea, but as far as sax blowing goes, Maceo Parker certainly deserves a nod as a game-changer.

Born in Kinston, North Carolina (where he still lives to this day), Parker learned music at a young age, first tickling the ivories on the piano.

Though his parents were not musically trained, his father played the drums and “they had rhythm and they could dance real good,” Parker said. Like many in his small hometown, the Parker family were commonly seen singing at church.

The Parker kids, however, were well versed in music early on. Maceo’s older brother Kellis played trombone and his younger sibling Melvin was a drummer. Together they bonded as a band.

“We played the same thing year after year after year,” Parker said. “After a while it started to sound like something.”

Parker’s thirst for music was insatiable. He and his brothers dabbled in everything, listening to big bands, jazz of all stripes and “even country and western,” Parker said with a chuckle.

The saxophone he has so eloquently been blowing professionally since 1962 was first revealed to him while watching an episode of Lawrence Welk on television as a child.

“I always thought it was kind of nice how the saxophone player would come from behind the stand and walk out and do the solo and then go back,” Parker said. “I thought, ‘Man, that’s kinda cool. I could do that.’

“I remember my first marching band experience — it must’ve been a Christmas parade, I was about six or seven or something — I was waiting for the piano and my mom said, ‘No, you have to play a marching instrument.’ I remember being really excited about the hoopla and the fanfare and the crashing cymbals, and I said, ‘Well, maybe I can choose one of those’ as I saw the saxophone line going by.”

How he became James Brown’s best known side man is the stuff of legend.

While studying in college to become a music teacher, Parker continued playing in bands to have some change in his pocket and to be able to “buy the cute girls the french fries and cheeseburgers and stuff.”

After a North Carolina show, Brown happened to go check out Parker’s brother Melvin’s band, getting a kick out of Melvin’s drumming.

“After so many years of trying to develop your own thing, we had really gotten into that and James Brown heard that when he heard Melvin play.”

Brown asked Melvin to join his band, but insisted Melvin finish school first: “In two years, three years, four years — whatever — I would like you to be in my band.”

Almost two years later, Melvin and Maceo left school to pursue music professionally full-time. Their first move was to hit the road and find James Brown.

“We found out he was playing the Greensboro Coliseum and we figured, ‘If we see a limousine, it’s gotta be James Brown.’ We got some fries and put some gas in the car and kept going around and around the Coliseum. The limousine came in and we were right behind.

“Melvin said, ‘Hey Mr. Brown remember me? I’m coming about that job.’ ‘Oh yeah! Hey guys, this is the kid I was telling you about.’ Melvin shook his hand and I cleared my throat, and Melvin said, ‘Mr. Brown this is my brother, he’s a saxophone player. He would like to have a job too.’”

Brown asked Maceo Parker if he played baritone sax.

“At the time, the tenor was my thing. I could almost see the words as he said it: ‘Do. You. Play. Baritone. Sax?’ I played a little bit. But there was only two ways I could answer it, either ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ If I answered ‘no,’ he would forget about me. I had to say yes.

“So the first question was, ‘Do you play baritone sax?’ And I said with a little smirky smile, ‘Ahhh, yes sir.’ ‘Do you OWN a baritone sax?’ Again I’ve got that smile — ‘Ahhh, yes sir.’ ‘I’ll tell you what: If you can get a baritone sax, you can have a job too.’ And he’s smiling and sticking his hand out to shake my hand. He kinda dug that. I knew I was in.”

Parker went on to appear on some of Brown’s biggest records, rapidly taking the spot of both tenor and baritone sax player for the Godfather of Soul, and fulfilling his dream to get the same solo spotlight he dreamed of when watching Lawrence Welk’s band.

Parker recalled that Brown’s signature cue to have him burst into a solo — “Maceo! I want you to blow!” — came during the impromptu recording session that gave birth to Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag.

“My name became part of the lyrics,” Parker said. “All the people mimicking James Brown around the world, they have a Maceo. This is crazy. That’s how my name got out there: If James Brown says he’s OK, he’s gotta be OK.”

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